Future Circular Collider

04/07/2026

✨ The Code of the Universe in the heart of Helsinki

Last Thursday, the Future Circular Collider’s travelling photographic exhibition The Code of the Universe opened in front of the Ateneum, the Finnish National Gallery, in the heart of Helsinki.

It is a particularly inspiring setting. Behind the exhibition panels, the Ateneum’s façade carries the large banner of its current exhibition dedicated to Eero Nelimarkka — one of Finland’s most beloved artists, known for his landscapes of South Ostrobothnia and his sensitive depictions of people. In this unexpected dialogue between art and science, the city centre becomes a place where different ways of observing the world meet: through colour, landscape and human presence; through particles, detectors and the hidden structures of nature.

The FCC photographic exhibition invites passers-by to discover the scientific questions, technologies and international collaborations behind the study for a possible next-generation research infrastructure at CERN. Through images from accelerators, detectors, laboratories and people at work, it offers a glimpse into the collective effort needed to explore the fundamental laws of the Universe.

Before arriving in Helsinki, The Code of the Universe toured Finland, bringing science into public spaces in Tampere, Jyväskylä and Lahti. Its Finnish journey was organised in the context of FCC Week 2026, hosted in Helsinki from 8 to 12 June, and helped open the scientific questions discussed by the international FCC community to a wider public audience.

The experience is complemented by The Code of the Universe, an interactive augmented-reality companion app for the travelling exhibition. You can download the application from: https://codeoftheuniverse.eu/. The app lets visitors visualise particle physics in their own space, build personal particle collisions, and unlock exclusive content when visiting the physical exhibition.

The exhibition will remain on display at Rautatientori, Helsinki, until 16 July.

A warm thank you to the Helsinki Institute of Physics and the University of Helsinki for their support, and to all colleagues and partners who made this possible. We are also grateful to everyone in Helsinki who takes a moment to stop, look, and reflect on how art and science can both help us ask deeper questions about the world around us.

Photo: Juha Aaltonen
Location: Ateneum / Rautatientori, Helsinki

01/07/2026

Warm birthday wishes to John Ellis — whose curiosity, insight and generosity have inspired generations of physicists and science communicators alike.
Few people have done as much to help us imagine what may lie beyond the known frontiers of particle physics, while also making those ideas accessible to wider audiences.

In a recent interview, he reflects on the long road to the boson, the discovery of the gluon, the development of the and the physics programme, and the questions that continue to open new paths for particle physics.

As John Ellis stresses, the Higgs boson is not only the culmination of the Standard Model story, but “the point at which the next story begins”:

"For decades, it was the missing piece of an increasingly impressive theory. Its discovery closed that chapter. But precisely because the discovered particle looks so much like the Standard Model Higgs, it sharpens all the remaining questions. Why is the Higgs so light? Is the vacuum absolutely stable? Is there only one scalar field, or a richer Higgs sector? Can precision Higgs measurements reveal virtual effects of new particles? Is supersymmetry waiting at a different scale, or is the answer something quite different? The Higgs has not removed those questions. It has made them more urgent. That is why I do not think of 2012 as a conclusion. It was a beginning — the beginning of the “après-Higgs” era."

This is where future colliders enter the story. FCC-ee should not be seen only as a Higgs factory, but more broadly as an electroweak factory — producing trillions of Z bosons, large samples of W bosons and Higgs bosons. Such a programme would enable measurements of extraordinary precision, opening windows onto what direct searches have yet to reveal.

From LEP to the LHC, and from the HL-LHC to the possible FCC programme, CERN’s scientific journey has advanced through successive generations of machines, experiments and collaborations — each expanding the reach of precision, energy and discovery, and each turning the search for new physics into an experimental reality.

Happy birthday, John Ellis — with many more years of bold questions, elegant ideas and inspiring conversations.

Read the full interview: https://ep-news.web.cern.ch/content/discussion-john-ellis-higgs-patience-and-perseverance-science

Image credit: Maximilien Brice

27/06/2026

What does it take for a future collider idea to mature?

In a recent CERN Courier opinion piece, Alain Blondel looks back over half a century of accelerator ideas, discoveries and strategic choices that have shaped the case for the Future Circular Collider.

From LEP and the LHC to the discovery of the Higgs boson and the growing importance of precision measurements, the article offers a thoughtful perspective on why FCC-ee has emerged as the preferred next flagship collider for CERN — and why this journey was anything but linear.

Read the full article by Alain Blondel (IN2P3 CNRS LPNHE, Emeritus Prof. University of Geneva) in CERN Courier: The FCC, half a century on
https://cerncourier.com/the-fcc-half-a-century-on/

A person points to an information board showing plans for the FCC, displayed as part of the Code of the Universe exhibit during FCC Week 2025 in Vienna, AustriaCredit: Joseph Krpelan, Michael Gizicki / CERN

26/06/2026

Warm congratulations to Prof. Günther Dissertori on his appointment as the next President of ETH Zürich.

A distinguished experimental particle physicist and long-standing member of the CERN community, Prof. Dissertori has made significant contributions to accelerator-based research, including to the discovery of the Higgs boson by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider in 2012. His work also reflects the broader impact of fundamental research, notably through advances in detector technologies for medical applications.

The FCC community benefited from his insight and leadership as Chair of the FCC International Advisory Committee from 2017 to 2019. In this role, he guided a careful and independent scrutiny of the project’s scientific, technical and strategic foundations during the preparation of the FCC Conceptual Design Report, published in 2019 in four volumes.

That process marked an important milestone for the FCC study. The FCC CDR helped shape the input to the previous update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics and informed the subsequent decision to launch a more detailed feasibility study of the project.

We remain grateful for Prof. Dissertori’s thoughtful engagement, constructive challenge and valued collaboration, and wish him every success as he takes up this new role on 1 January 2027.

At the request of the ETH Board, the Federal Council voted to confirm Günther Dissertori as the next President of ETH Zurich. The particle physicist, who currently serves as Rector of the university, succeeds Joël Mesot and will take over from the two-term president on 1 January 2027.

12/06/2026

As comes to a close in Helsinki, we leave with a renewed sense of momentum, responsibility and shared purpose.

Over the past days, 656 participants from all over the world came together for a dense and inspiring programme: 66 public sessions, 265 oral presentations and 47 posters. Across plenaries, parallel sessions, poster discussions and informal exchanges, the week reflected the breadth of the study — from precision physics, accelerator and detector R&D, and sustainability, to civil engineering, implementation scenarios, industry engagement, public dialogue and international collaboration.

What made the week especially meaningful was the sense of continuity. The questions are fundamental, the technologies are still evolving, and the timescales extend well beyond any single meeting, institute or generation. In Helsinki, this long horizon felt very present: in the technical discussions, in the exchanges with industry and society, and in the strong participation of early-career researchers alongside senior experts. The FCC is, above all, a shared investment in the future capacity of science to ask deeper questions.
This broader dialogue was also visible beyond the scientific sessions: in the Industry & Technology Day, which connected FCC challenges with innovation ecosystems in Finland and the wider Nordic–Baltic region; in the public event at the University of Helsinki’s Think Corner, organised in the context of the 30th anniversary of the Helsinki Institute of Physics; and in outreach initiatives such as the Code of the Universe travelling exhibition.

The poster session celebrated the quality, creativity and commitment of our community’s work. It was also a powerful reminder that the FCC, if approved, will be built, operated and scientifically exploited by the next generation — many of whom were present in Helsinki this week. The age distribution of participants, from early-career researchers to senior experts, reflected the intergenerational nature of this endeavour: experience and memory meeting new energy, talent and vision.

A warm thank you to the University of Helsinki, the Helsinki Institute of Physics, the City of Helsinki, our Finnish hosts, the local, regional and CERN organising teams, the session conveners, speakers, participants, student helpers, sponsors and all colleagues who contributed to such a rich and constructive week.

To all our collaborators who joined us in Helsinki from across the world: thank you for your commitment, energy and contributions. We wish everyone a safe trip back home. The work continues — with the same spirit of collaboration, curiosity and trust that has always made particle physics a truly global endeavour.

Looking forward to FCC Week 2027 in Madrid.

11/06/2026

“[…] what we observe is not nature itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning. Our scientific work in physics consists in asking questions about nature in the language that we possess […]”

— W. Heisenberg

During , one question has continued to resonate across many discussions: how can become a path to discovery?

This question was strongly framed in the plenary talk by Pier Francesco Monni, who discussed the theory challenges accompanying the FCC’s ambitious programme. But it has also run through many sessions, from precision electroweak physics and studies to flavour, QCD, detector performance and future searches for new phenomena.

The starting point is clear: despite the remarkable success of the , some of the deepest questions in fundamental physics remain open — from the nature of dark matter and dark energy to the origin of the matter–antimatter asymmetry, neutrino masses, flavour hierarchies, the Higgs potential and the mechanisms behind electroweak symmetry breaking.

Addressing these questions requires a broad and complementary experimental strategy. Colliders remain central to this effort, because of their direct discovery potential, but also because they can reveal indirect traces of new physics through precision measurements.

FCC-ee would offer unprecedented precision across a wide range of observables, from the Z and W bosons to the Higgs and top-quark sectors. Its Tera-Z, WW, Higgs and top runs would allow us to test the internal consistency of the Standard Model with extraordinary sensitivity and probe new-physics effects beyond direct production reach.

At the same time, the FCC is more than a Higgs factory. It is a broad, multi-stage and multi-purpose physics programme, characterised by powerful synergies between direct and indirect searches for new physics. As highlighted throughout the week, this combination defines an exceptionally broad scientific programme, spanning precision studies of the Standard Model and the exploration of scenarios beyond it.

One recurring message is that this experimental ambition must be matched by an equally ambitious theory effort. To fully exploit FCC data, theoretical predictions will need to reach a level of precision well beyond the current state of the art. This concerns electroweak observables, Higgs physics, flavour, QCD, hadronisation, effective-field-theory interpretations, and the extraction of key quantities such as the W mass, the top mass, and the strong coupling constant.

This is not only a technical challenge. It is also a collective one. Progress of this scale has historically taken decades. For the FCC, much of it will need to be achieved within the next two decades, through a sustained and coordinated effort across the theoretical physics community.

This effort will not only extend the experimental frontier. It will also redefine the level of theoretical control we bring to exploring fundamental physics.

09/06/2026

What is particle physics telling us today — and what questions will guide tomorrow’s discoveries?

This evening at Think Corner, , CERN's Director-General Mark Thomson will give a public lecture on "Particle Physics Today and Tomorrow", as part of in Helsinki.

The lecture will be followed by a panel discussion on The Next Frontier of Fundamental Physics, with Rebeca Gonzalez Suarez, Anu Kankainen, Panja Luukka, Michelangelo Mangano, Mikko Voutilainen and Aleksi Vuorinen, moderated by Isak Rautio.

At the heart of particle physics are some of the most fundamental questions we can ask: What is the universe made of? How did it evolve? Why does matter exist? And how far can curiosity, technology and international cooperation take us?

The event also forms part of the celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of the Helsinki Institute of Physics, whose work has helped connect Finnish research to major international scientific collaborations.

In a week dedicated to the Future Circular Collider, this public event is a reminder that the future of science also belongs in open public spaces — where ideas can be shared, questions can be asked, and science can meet society.

📍 Think Corner, University of Helsinki
🕔 Tuesday 9 June, 17:00

Watch live: https://tiedekulmamedia.helsinki.fi/en/tiedekulma/event/details/414009918/

08/06/2026

What does it take to prepare the next great scientific instrument for humanity’s exploration of the universe? The opening session of in Helsinki offered several answers: vision, precision, collaboration, technological ambition and long-term commitment.

The morning opened with words of welcome from the University of Helsinki, the Helsinki Institute of Physics and the Research Council of Finland, setting the tone for a week hosted in a country with a strong tradition of research, education and international scientific cooperation.

In her opening address, Paula Eerola, President of the Academy of Finland, brought a deeply personal and institutional perspective, drawing on her own path in particle physics, from the UA2 experiment to her roles serving the particle physics community, CERN Council and now as a research funder. She reflected on CERN as a place of collective responsibility, where bright minds from across the world come together, ideas can flow freely, and science transcends borders.

Her remarks also connected CERN’s mission to wider societal challenges. In a world marked by geopolitical tensions and complex problems that no country can solve alone, CERN remains a powerful example of what can be achieved through openness, shared purpose and responsible international cooperation.

Her talk reminded us that projects such as the FCC are also investments in curiosity, knowledge, education, critical thinking and collaboration across borders. They are commitments to a future in which science does not only produce discoveries, but also strengthens the habits that make discovery possible: asking questions, challenging assumptions, working across disciplines and building knowledge together.

CERN Director-General Mark Thomson framed the coming years as a critical period. The Laboratory is entering a phase dominated by HL-LHC machine and detector construction, while also advancing FCC-ee as a possible next flagship project after the HL-LHC — a project that would be the largest collider ever built.

His message was both realistic and ambitious: CERN must first succeed with the HL-LHC, but with the right focus it can also move forward with its highest long-term priorities. As stated in his opening remarks, “Taking FCC-ee to a decision point is CERN’s highest long-term scientific priority.” He also underlined the international nature of the endeavour, noting that “FCC will be an international project with many partners and it is great to see so many people here today in Helsinki.”

Costas Fountas, President of CERN Council, brought the perspective of CERN’s Member States and underlined the importance of the alignment that has emerged over the past year. He stressed the strong alignment between the CERN Council, CERN management and the high-energy physics community, with Member States supporting the field’s path forward.

We were also honoured to welcome Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, Implementation and Simplification, whose keynote address placed the FCC within a broader reflection on Europe’s scientific competitiveness, technological ambition and capacity for long-term cooperation. As he noted: “At a time when multilateralism is seemingly in retreat, CERN reminds us of what is possible when we come together around a shared purpose. The FCC is the kind of project that can define what Europe chooses to be for a century to come.”
Turning this vision into reality, he added, will require sustained engagement from European institutions, Member States, industry and the scientific community — but it is precisely the kind of ambition through which Europe can invest in the future and lead through science, innovation and cooperation.

It was a strong opening to — and a reminder that preparing the future of particle physics is not only about designing the next machine. It is also about building the partnerships, technologies, skills and shared commitments that can make such a future possible.

08/06/2026

“CERN reminds us of what is possible when we come together around a shared purpose.” said Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, Implementation and Simplification in the keynote address of , which begins today in Helsinki.

He presented the FCC as a concrete example of how Europe can invest in the foundations of future growth: talent, technology, innovation and cooperation at scale.

This year’s meeting brings together more than 600 researchers, policymakers and industry representatives from around the world.

It is the first FCC week following the 2026 update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics ( ), which identified the FCC-ee as the preferred option for CERN’s next flagship project.

📸 European Commission

07/06/2026

What future can we build together for particle physics?

Tomorrow, FCC Week 2026 opens in Helsinki, bringing together the international community working on the Future Circular Collider at a particularly important moment for the field.

Following the publication of the FCC Feasibility Study in March 2025 and a broad consultation process within the European particle physics community, carried out under the auspices of the European Strategy Group, the Council has updated the European Strategy for Particle Physics. The FCC-ee has been identified as the preferred option for CERN’s next flagship project after the HL-LHC — an important step in shaping Europe’s long-term vision for high-energy physics, with the Council expected to be in a position to take a decision on whether to proceed by 2028.

This is, still an ongoing process — one that extends well beyond the scientific community. Public participation processes have started in Switzerland and France, opening spaces for citizens, local communities and stakeholders to learn more about the project, ask questions and contribute to the discussion.

FCC Week 2026 will therefore be both a moment to take stock and a space to look ahead. Over the coming days, participants will review the progress achieved so far, exchange ideas, and discuss the scientific, technological and societal questions that will shape the next phase. The programme will cover the FCC physics case, accelerator and detector concepts, sustainability, civil engineering, technical infrastructure, implementation scenarios, and the broader impact of a possible future research infrastructure of this scale.

It will also provide an opportunity to address the many challenges that come with preparing such an ambitious project — from cutting-edge technologies and environmental considerations to territorial integration, financing, governance and long-term engagement with local communities.

A dedicated Industry Day on Wednesday (10/06) will further broaden the conversation, bringing together industry representatives, innovation actors, policymakers and the wider community to explore how fundamental research can drive technological progress, skills development and international cooperation.

Many thanks to our hosts at the University of Helsinki, to the colleagues serving on the organising committee, and to our sponsors for helping make this important week of discussions possible.

Looking forward to an inspiring FCC Week 2026 in Helsinki.